Marketing

Singapore - Maybank Singapore has appointed McCann Worldgroup as its creative agency and Initiative as its media agency.

Hong Kong - Australian skincare brand Aesop has opened its second signature store at Paterson Street in Causeway Bay with a 'library' store design aimed at providing experiential marketing to the well read and affluent customers.

Malaysia – In just under a month, Maxis Communications' newly launched Voice Portal service has reached the 150,000 unique user mark with 300,000 calls made to the service.

Singapore - The acquisition deal offered by market research agency heavyweight GfK for Taylor Nelson Sofres (TNS) - reportedly close to being sealed - has folded, leaving WPP the only hostile contender left in the courtship.

Malaysia – Malaysia Airlines has refuted reports its creative account, held by Ogilvy & Mather, has come under review, indicating a separate ongoing pitch for a project, which has attracted much interest from agencies, as a possible cause for the confusion.

Malaysia - The antics of buying an underwater camera at an underwater camera shop stole the hearts of many at the gambit launch of the Olympus µ1050 SW, recently.

Hong Kong - Coca-Cola has launched its "WE8" campaign, which brings together eight global artists and musicians to express happiness and cultural exchange between the East and the West, in the post-Olympics period.

With the proliferation of loyalty programmes, it’s hard to find steadfast customers who will stick with you through price hikes, tough competition and varying expectations. However, there is more to loyalty than stamps and seat upgrades. Cherisse Beh, Marcus Chhan and Rayana Pandey met up with loyalty veterans and marketers who have done a splendid job of managing their customers to see what sets them apart from their rivals.

Dell’s chief marketing officer Mark Jarvis knows competing on price can be less of a focus with a more compelling product line. He talks to Rayana Pandey about rebooting Dell’s campaign, and about leaving a mark in the industry.

If women don’t trust advertising as much as they trust their friends, then what hope do marketers have of reaching this most powerful consumer demographic? Jacqueline Yeo looks at what women want.

Hong Kong - Taubman Asia has unveiled its mega-luxury shopping complex, The Mall at Studio City, which is said to become Asia's most luxurious shopping centre worth US$2.5 billion located in Macao and due for completion in 2011.

Hong Kong- Samsung Electronics will hold a second phase campaign to market its GX-20 camera in Hong Kong as competitions between camera brands heats up.

Singapore - Videocon-backed telecom company Datacom has hired global brand consultancy firm Interbrand to finalise the brand name under which the firm will roll out its mobile services in India, later this year.

Singapore - Candid Water Cooler has overhauled the branding and design for its distilled water brand Alpheus, after strong growth in commercial water dispensers usage.

Singapore - P&G has launched an integrated through-the-line campaign to market its range of anti-aging body care products "Total Effects" to savvy young women.

This is the first guest blog entry from Belgian marketing consulting firm The House of Marketing's Catherine Crevels, who is based in its Shanghai office. In this first entry, she discusses how marketers can make it work in the promised land of all promised lands -- China.

Malaysia - U Mobile's "Call the Shots!" campaign, launched in July, has seen more than 100,000 subscriptions to date.

Hong Kong - Motorola will run a campaign early September to extend its Ming Dynasty with a new generation of smart phone, led by product ambassador Denise Ho.

This is the first guest blog entry from Belgian marketing consulting firm The House of Marketing's Catherine Crevels, who is based in its Shanghai office. In this first entry, she discusses how marketers can make it work in the promised land of all promised lands -- China. Enjoy!

Singapore - The Parkroyal Group recently launched a marketing stunt involving serving tea and giving away mooncakes to taxi drivers at its Beach Road and Kitchener Road chains.

Singapore - Jörg Dietzel Brand Consultants will be working with the Singapore Sports Council (SSC) on an ad hoc project - taking on a consultancy role as the government agency looks to work on a race-related sports hub.

Singapore - In these tough times, as marketers are losing sleep over the waning attention span of consumers, experts believe the only way out is to offer them excellent and not just good service.

Hong Kong - Online fashion hub Stardoll has teamed up with Chinese media conglomerate Tom Group to launch a Chinese version of Stardoll targeting teenage girls.

Singapore - Global engineering construction giant, Punj Lloyd has launched its inaugural campaign with Eye's advertising offerings at Singapore Changi Airport.

Malaysia - In a marketing initiative, Nokia N-Gage, with the help of media agency Mediacom Interaction, has launched a campaign at Garena.com, one of Asia's leading online gaming platforms.

Singapore – Acxiom’s former regional director of business development Will Bordelon has joined database marketing agency Merkle as senior director of client development.

Singapore - Mirroring global consumer confidence trends, confidence levels among Singapore consumers have plunged more than 12 points from 114 to 102 on Nielsen's Consumer Confidence Index for the first half 2008.

Beijing - The Hilton Beijing Wangfujing has launched a campaign to promote its dining and lifestyle services and distinguish itself from the other Hilton in Beijing.